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Friendsgiving: eat, drink and be merry

It is no hidden truth that I love hosting, feeding people, taking in people when they need a place and pies. And I can tell you exactly where those loves come from, none other than my maternal role models: my mom and my grandmas.

This past weekend was my almost favourite event of the year, friendsgiving weekend that actually did turn into a whole weekend event. I'm not sure I would do it that way again but it was nice to spread things out and have the ability to have a good chat with the people who came on the less busy day. It's tough to find time to fit everything in, so opening up two days was my way of accommodating it.

What we ate:

Back in the day, my ma would host a come and go event in the fall and would bake a billion pies- so the food inspiration came from her....I made saskatoon, apple, pumpkin, chocolate pumpkin, banana cream and lemon meringue pies. The most popular was lemon meringue and the apple.

I was going to make a big pot of chili but decided I suck at chili and went with one of my mom's best dishes: spaghetti. It was easy to make a giant pot and for Sunday when it had dried out a bit- all I had to do was add some frozen (premade) tomato sauce and voilà it was back to life. I was also feeling energetic on Sunday morning and made some buns so they could make sandwiches if they didn't want spaghetti. They were all gone by the end of the day, so definitely would do that again.

What we drank:

One downer of having this during the day, with the kids, out in the county is that day drinking isn't a popular sport, so I didn't have any fun cocktails to serve. I did put on some apple cider with mulled spices and if anything, it made the house smell delicious.

What we did:

Chatted, visited, caught up. I did quick photo shoots in the corner for my friends' cmas cards. I have been taking my friends' cmas cards photos for many years, so this actually makes it easier to do. I had a moment of ambition where I thought I'd have organized stuff for all the kids, but they kept themselves quite busy in the basement with lego, the switch or outside on the trampoline.

Thoughts for 2017:

Eventually my goal will be to put out one long banquet table and host a sit down meal, but I think right now with the kids being a little young- it will be too loco for that. So for a couple more years this come and go thing is going to work. I think that once we move into the new house, I'll host the epic Friendsgiving that I'm envisioning.

What I love about this event is that it's my time that I get to do something for my people. These are the families that we've known for ages and who have been by our side in all the ups and downs. It is so hard to find time in our busy worlds to take a break and it brings me so much joy to be able to bring all the people I love under one roof and break bread with them. There's something sacred and special about that.

Here are a few of my favourite pictures that I did for them. Seriously, so many cute kids.

You can read last year's Friendsgiving post here- and I gotta say, this is just year two doing it and last year I had two nights planned with my different groups of friends...this year it was two days but with all my friends...what will next year bring?